1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of oil coolers for cooling transmission oil, engine oil, power steering oil or the like in an automotive or other engine system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heat exchangers are employed extensively for supplemental cooling of oil employed in connection with engine systems, including but not limited to automatic transmission fluid, power steering fluid, and engine lubricating oil. In automotive internal combustion systems, such oil coolers are employed in addition to the conventional engine coolant radiators and air conditioner condensers. A widely used heat exchange system employing such an oil cooler in an automotive internal combustion engine system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,315,464, issued Apr. 25, 1967 to Perez M. Hayden.
Because of space limitations and accessibility to good air flow, it is desirable to mount such an oil cooler in generally parallel, stacked relationship to the engine coolant radiator or air conditioner condenser, and this is true both for original equipment or "O.E.M." installations and for field or "after market" installations.
Traditionally, such oil coolers were bracket-mounted, which was undesirably expensive and time-consuming, requiring that the oil coolers be supplied with clamps, straps, nuts and bolts, washers, metal screws, and the like, and this type of mounting required extensive installation time.
Since it is desirable both because of the availability of suitable space in an otherwise generally crowded environment and because of the good flow of cooling air, to mount such an oil cooler in association with either the engine coolant radiator or the air conditioner condenser, it would also be desirable to mount the oil cooler directly on the radiator or condenser so as to take advantage of the pre-existing fixed mounting thereof in the engine system. There have been prior attempts to thus directly mount the oil cooler on the radiator or condenser utilizing standard flat nylon cable ties, but these attempts have in general involved almost as much difficulty and expense as the traditional bracket mounting of the coolers. Thus, available cable ties have only been sufficiently long to go through the condenser and the oil cooler, and not through all three of the radiator, condenser and oil cooler. Since the available space between the radiator and condenser is generally inadequate for insertion of a hand to manipulate the cable tie, it was usually necessary to unbolt the condenser from the radiator in order to gain access for threading the cable ties through the condenser, and thence through the oil cooler for tying the cooler to the condenser. Even then, each cable tie connection required the use of a plurality of the ties and washers. The flat construction of the cable ties permitted gross lateral bending thereof which would have precluded pushing them through both the radiator and condenser to avoid unbolting the condenser from the radiator, even if the ties had been long enough. Also, with the flat cable ties, lining up the condenser and oil cooler fins for reception of the cable ties was often difficult, and if the condenser and cooler fins were disoriented, as for example being arranged 90.degree. apart, then a quick twist of the flat cable ties was required, which sometimes was not practical.